Texas Border Business

The cast of The Four Bills took an enjoyable approach to researching their characters — they watched dozens of movies.

“Well, maybe not dozens, but certainly close to a dozen,” actor Ian Salazar revealed with a smile.  Ian plays William Raidler, a lawyer in the 1880s who goes West for his health.  “His doctor recommends the warm sun of Utah, rather than the cramped offices of Philadelphia, PA,” Ian notes.  “At first Raidler is appalled, but then he sort of likes the idea.  It’s a way for him to break loose.”  

All the characters in The Four Bills, the new musical production of Pharr Community Theatre and its artistic director Pedro Garcia, are based on real-life historical figures.  The show, a salute to Western movies and our own Southwestern history, depicts the exploits of the Doolin

Gang, outlaws who robbed banks, trains and stagecoaches in that long-ago but much-chronicled era of Jesse James on one side of the law and Bat Masterson on the other.

“I watched so many of the great Western movies,” Ian remarks.  “High Noon, Stagecoach, Ride the High Country.  So many of them show the courage of the lawmen who patrolled the West — and the audacity of the outlaws who in some cases were more famous than the sheriffs who pursued them.”  

Aaron Matthew Barrera landed the key role of Bill Doolin in The Four Bills, the leader of the outlaw gang.  “He was just a young kid, fresh out of Arkansas, who dreamed of being bigger than Jesse,” Aaron observes.  “So I watched movies that featured mythic outlaws, to understand what about them would have influenced a boy like Doolin.  The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and Gunfight at the OK Corral were my favorites.”

Just as movies shaped our vision of the wild west, the outlaws and frontiersmen of that era were first lionized by an entirely different medium.  “In the late 19^th century, the equivalent of movies were popular folk songs and magazines called penny-dreadfuls.  For a penny, you could read about the exploits of your favorite outlaw or lawman,” according to Barry Glasser, who wrote the book for The Four Bills. “And, of course, they made these figures larger than life.  So a kid like Bill Doolin, who was so impressionable, could actually look up to those outlaws as role models, heroes who were taking on the establishment.”  

One of the show-stopping numbers in the score of The Four Bills is “Bigger Than Jesse,” in which Doolin sings of his dreams to be more famous than Jesse James.  “Until he realizes that a dream like that has its risks, it could be a nightmare in fact because of the target it paints on your back,” Glasser comments.  The score of The Four Bills, from composer David Spear and lyricist David Fox, also pays tribute to the saloon songs, country ballads and rousing dance hall production numbers that Doolin and his contemporaries would have cheered.  

“Bill Doolin would have been delighted that a musical bearing his name is now introducing him to audiences here in Texas more than a century after his fame,” Glasser states.  And the show not only bears his name but that of fellow gang members Bill Raider and Bill Dalton – and the U.S. marshal who pursued them, Bill Tilghman.  “Yes, all Bills.  And it’s all true,” Glasser assures us.  “Well, mostly true,” he smiles.  “That why I have such admiration for our director Seres Jaime Magana.  He manages to find the humanity of these characters so we know them as individuals while also finding the qualities in them that made them legends, movie stars before there were movies.”  

The Four Bills returns to the stage June 9, 10 and 11 at 7:30 p.m. at PSJA Memorial High School, 800 S. Alamo Rd., Alamo; and June 17 and 18 at 7:30 p.m. at DRC Center, 850 W. Dicker Rd., Pharr.

Tickets are only $5 for all students, veterans & senior citizens and $8 general admission and will be sold at the door, only, starting one hour before showtime. 

For more details find us on FB at Pharr Community Theater Co. or on our website at www.pharrcommunitytheater.com or text 956-655-9308.

The post The Four Bills Plays Again From June 9-18 In Alamo & Pharr appeared first on Texas Border Business.